Lifting the Curtain on Antisemitism—Episode 6: Building Horizontal Alliances and Fighting Antisemitism as Progressives with Shanice McBean and Rachel Shabi

PRA Presents

The final episode of Lifting the Curtain on Antisemitism explores how to understand and fight antisemitism as progressives—and as part of a wider struggle for justice. Centrist and right-wing political forces frequently frame antisemitism as integral to social justice movements, suggesting both that there is no place for Jews on the Left, and also that other communities’ liberation struggles pose an active threat to Jewish communities around the world.

Tackling these false framings heads-on, author and activist Shanice McBean and journalist Rachel Shabi, both offering perspectives from the U.K., explain how charges of antisemitism are so frequently used to undermine progressive movements while examining how the Right staked its claim to be the only genuine defender of Jewish communities. They unpack how the fight against antisemitism became divorced from other liberation struggles and subsequently how confronting it has become such a fraught issue. Finally, Rachel and Shanice emphasize the importance of reintegrating the issue into wider Left politics, setting out how to truly fight antisemitism as progressives.

Shanice Octavia McBean is a co-author of Abolition Revolution, Pluto Press's award-shortlisted intervention on race, class and policing in the U.K. She is a Black feminist activist raised in Handsworth, Birmingham, and is an organizer with Black-Jewish Alliance.

Rachel Shabi is an award-winning journalist who has reported extensively on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Now based in the U.K., she covers current affairs, with her work appearing across international publications including The Guardian, The New York Times, the London Times, The Nation and the New York Review of Books. A regular broadcast commentator, Rachel’s first book, Not the Enemy - Israel’s Jews from Arab Lands received the Us National Jewish Book award. Her latest book is Off White: The Truth About Antisemitism.

Resources

• Shanice McBean, ‘The Despised Blood of the Negro Flows Freely in the Veins of Jews,” On Revolution, March 23, 2025.
• Shabi, Rachel. Off-White: The Truth About Antisemitism. London: Oneworld Publications, 2024.

Lifting the Curtain on Antisemitism is a collaboration between Political Research Associates and Diaspora Alliance. The show is produced by Olivia Lawrence-Weilmann. Our hosts are Ben Lorber and Shoshana Brown. Original score by Aakash Desai. Artwork by Zoe Newton. Our fact checker is Natasha Roth-Rowland. Sound design and mixing by Thick Skin Media. Also thank you to Natasha Roth-Rowland, Simone Zimmerman, Em Hilton, and Koki Mendis for your insights and thought partnership.